


Those Many Tiny Things

by clefairytea



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Lovers!Yosuke, Magician!Rise, Other, arcana swap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2018-10-11 07:02:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10458255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clefairytea/pseuds/clefairytea
Summary: Rise’s parents insist it’ll be a nice change for her, going from the hustle and bustle of the city to the sleepy countryside. Rise isn’t so sure. She doesn’t think that the problem is the city, not really.‘Try to make friends, sweetie,’ her father says, his voice low, and it’s such a sad, earnest plea that Rise’s mouth dries up. She swears she’ll try, she really will.Her train pulls in behind her, and she tries to look brave and cheerful as she drags her case on board. Finding her seat, glancing at her hopeful parents one last time, she pulls her headphones over her ears and lets the noise drown everything else out.*‘Hana-chan, please,’ the director pleads, ‘Just deliver the lines written with enthusiasm! I don’t know why you’re stumbling today.’‘I know, I know, I’m sorry. I’m just tired,’ Yosuke says, and he is. God, he is. This feels like the billionth commercial he’s done this month alone. Not for the first time, he seriously wonders how much longer he can take this.--In which Rise is the less-than-popular transfer student from the city, and Yosuke is the stressed teen idol on the verge of a breakdown.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for bullying and discussion of mental illness.

**Magician**

Rise’s parents insist it’ll be a nice change for her, going from the hustle and bustle of the city to the sleepy countryside. Rise isn’t so sure. She doesn’t think that the problem is the city, not really.

Yet a week after she drops out of her old high school in the city, she agrees to be shipped off all the way to Inaba. Her Grandma runs a tofu shop – Rise has vague memories of visiting when she was little, eating all different kinds of tofu, running up and down the shopping distract.

Maybe it would be nice. Inaba was a nice, quiet place, she remembers. She might be able to make friends there, at least.

Her parents stand with her on the train platform, hugging and fussing and assuring her it’ll be different this time.

Her mother leans forward and brushes Rise’s hair out of her eyes, frowning.

‘You’ve got such a pretty face, sweetie,’ she says, ‘I don’t know why you don’t want to show it off more.’

Rise swallows, chewing on her lip. Maybe she should try to change, this time. With this thought in mind, she tugs her hair up into a ponytail, and tries to smile as brightly as she can. The way her aunt tried to teach her.

‘Try to make friends, sweetie,’ her father says, his voice low, and it’s such a sad, earnest plea that Rise’s mouth dries up. She swears she’ll try, she really will.

Her train pulls in behind her, and she tries to look brave and cheerful as she drags her case on board. Finding her seat, glancing at her hopeful parents one last time, she pulls her headphones over her ears and lets the noise drown everything else out.

\--

**Lovers**

‘Deadlines? Overtime? Hey, don’t slow down – speed up with _HurryHurry Coffee_ , the only canned coffee you’ll ever need! C’mon…um. Everybody fight?’

‘Cut!’

Yosuke sighs, smacking down the prop can on a nearby surface. His agent, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, rubbing his temples with his fingers, looks as though he’s picturing murdering him in the most exquisite detail he can manage.

‘Hana-chan, please,’ the director says, pleading, ‘Just deliver the lines written with enthusiasm! I don’t know why you’re stumbling today.’

‘I know, I know, I’m sorry. I’m just tired,’ he says, and he is. God, he is. This feels like the billionth commercial he’s done this month alone. And the least dignified – he’s not sure who put this commercial together. The wardrobe department’s inspiration seemed to be ‘a salaryman, only a teenager and also sexy and possibly magical and wearing as many layers as physically possible’. The script was equally as confused – some dude is overworked and then Yosuke floats in on a cloud (to be added in with CGI later), and he gives this overworked guy a crappy can of coffee. This solves the guy’s entire life, apparently, and the two of them dance a bit on the desk, and then Yosuke winks for the camera and all but makes out with the stupid coffee and it’s a mess. It’s a weird, stupid mess that the other guys are never going to let him live down.

He doesn’t know why he always gets stuck with the shitty, embarrassing work. Ultimately, he supposes somebody has to do it. It’s not like the other members of the band would keep him around for much longer if he wasn’t getting it.

‘Hey, hey, sorry, look, I’m ready to go now!’ he says, winking. The director only shakes her head.

‘Alright then, from the top,’ she says, sighing, and gestures to Yosuke to go find his mark.

Yosuke grins like an idiot, standing ready to say yet more insipid shit he doesn’t mean, and he seriously wonders how much longer he can take this.

\--

**Fool**

Chie is a really nice person, Souji decides. When he transfers to a new school, he’s used to being the subject of fascination. The attention always wanes, though. People satisfy their curiosity, and then they move on. Most people don't really want to take the time or effort to welcome a new person into their group. Most schools, the groups and the dynamics are already set, so there's no room for interlopers.

Then there’s people like Chie. They’re interested, even nosy maybe, but there’s something a bit more genuine there. Like they really want to make sure that he’s okay.

Or maybe, and Souji feels bad thinking this, it’s more that she only seems to have one friend herself. He supposes beggars can’t be choosers.

‘Alright, so uh, the library is down this hallway. Yukiko sometimes drags me there after school to study,’ she explains over lunch. Yukiko has disappeared somewhere – something about phone calls for her family’s inn she needs to make – so Chie takes the chance to give him ‘the grand tour’. Yasoinaba is small enough just a regular tour is kind of pushing it, but Souji nods and listens all the same.

‘Right, and if you go down that hallway, you can walk to the practice building! I’m not in any school clubs, but I think there’s a couple of boys sports clubs that might be accepting new members soon –‘

‘Hey, Kujikawa-san, listen to us while we’re talking to you!’

‘Yeah, what, do you think you’re so much better than us?’

‘Urgh…this again,’ Chie mutters darkly. Souji follows the source of the noise and sees a trio of girls are looming over another girl down the hallway to his right. The other girl stands pressed flat against the wall, her head low and her dark hair falling in front of her eyes.

‘Hey, hey, don’t ignore us!’ the gaudy girl with the bun says, and shoves Kujikawa in the shoulder, ‘Is it true? You know, what people are saying about you?’

Kujikawa doesn’t reply, just stares at her feet.

‘Oooh, that’s so scary,’ another girl says, giggling, ‘Do you think we’re safe around her?

‘Hey!’ Chie interrupts, storming towards the girls before Souji can say anything. They all look up, alarmed, and back off a little. Chie’s reputation clearly precedes her. ‘How about you guys knock that junk off?’

‘Huh? Satonaka-senpai?’ one says, blinking at them.

‘Urgh, can’t you mind your own business?’ the gaudy girl says, scowling with her arms folded across her chest.

‘Not when someone’s being bullied I can’t!’ Chie says, putting her hands on her hips. She glances back at Souji. It’s not Souji’s style, making himself stick out, especially not so early in his career at a new school, but he can hardly let this go on. Not when Chie, half his size, is so willing to take a stand.

‘You girls need to grow up,’ he says, shaking his head. The girls stiffen at this, clearly not expecting the tone of disappointment. If there’s one thing he’s learned from his mother, it’s how to make a mild scolding emotionally crushing.

‘Urgh, whatever. Let’s go, guys,’ the girl with the bun says eventually, rolling her eyes as though Chie was the one who started it in the first place. With a lot of muttering and dark glances thrown back at both Souji and Chie, the girls stalk off, tittering to themselves about how some people can't take a joke.

‘Hey…Rise-san, right?’ Chie says, her voice low and kind, as though she was talking to a skittish animal. Souji has to admit, looking at Rise’s wide eyes and twitchy demeanour, that it’s not an unreasonable comparison. She doesn’t reply, just glances between them both as though terrified they’re going to be even nastier than the girls who just left.

‘Sheesh, those girls were really jerks!’ Chie continues, undeterred, ‘Are they in your class? That’s the worst. Um, so I’m Chie Satonaka, and this is Souji Seta! He just transferred here from the city, like you.’

‘Uh, I, uh –‘ Rise splutters.

‘Hm?’ Chie prompts, smiling.

Rise makes a run for it, shoving Chie out of the way.

‘Woah, uh!’ Chie says, stumbling back.

Souji has to admit – he hadn’t been expecting that.

‘Oh, oh jeez…was I coming on to strongly?’ Chie says, grimacing, ‘Urgh, Yukiko says I can be like that. I think I scared her...’

‘Apologise to her later,’ he replies, shrugging, ‘We should head back to class.’

#

‘Urgh, King Moron’s been worse since you got here, you know,’ Chie says, as the bell rings for the end of class.

‘Sorry,’ Souji says, scratching the back of his neck.

‘It’s not your fault. I think he’s just all excited at having fresh meat…brr…’ she says, and then brightens up, ‘But you know what, meat is _exactly_ what we need right now! Ooh, ooh, I know a really good place in the shopping district! The _best_ grilled steak you’ll ever have, I swear.’

‘Sounds good,’ he agrees. Chie beams and then twists to look at Yukiko.

‘C’mon, Yukiko, how about it? Grilled steak?’

‘I’ll pass. I don’t want to gain any more weight. And I have a lot of work at the inn today,’ Yukiko replies, so curtly that Souji pretends to be very preoccupied with sliding his handouts into a folder.

‘Oh, uh, really?’ Chie says, ‘Can’t you skip out a little bit?’

‘I’m sorry, I really can’t,’ she says, and swiftly leaves the room.

‘Sheesh. It feels like all she does is work lately,’ Chie says, leaning back and forth on her chair and sucking on her lower lip, before brightening up, ‘Oh, I know what we should do! Let’s go get Rise-san from downstairs and invite her to come with us! Just to say sorry about yesterday. I’m kind of worried I made things worse for her…’

‘Uh, is that okay?’ Souji asks, squinting. It’s been a long time since he was bullied himself, but if there’s one thing he learned, just keeping your head down was the best way to deal with it.

‘Of course, it is! We should be looking out for our underclassmen, right? It’s our responsibility as her senpai,’ she says, getting up, ‘Oh, man, I feel great about this now. Let’s go find her right now!’

Souji has a feeling he’s going to go along with this one way or another.

They don’t go far. As soon as Chie throws open the classroom door, she almost slams directly into Rise.

‘Rise-san?’

‘Senpai!’ she says, too loudly, pulling her headphones off and round her neck. Glancing between them, she clears her throat and pastes an awkward grin on her face, ‘Hi! Oh, ok. This is great. I was hoping to run into both of you today.’

‘Hey, wow, you seem like you’re in a better mood today,’ Chie says.

‘Haha. Sorry, you, um. Caught me at a bad time yesterday. So I just, I wanted to say, I’m really sorry,’ she says, and then gives them a low bow, chattering very quickly, ‘I really appreciated your help! I hope we can be friends and –‘

‘Uh, woah, woah, you don’t need to be so formal!’ Chie interrupts, wide-eyed, ‘We were just looking for you too, you know. We’re about to go to Souzai Daigaku. Do you wanna come with?’

‘Is that okay?’ she says, looking at Souji for confirmation. He smiles, and nods, and the smile he gets back actually seems completely honest.

 

The grilled steak, Souji has to admit, is pretty good. But it is also, very simply, grilled steak. If he’s honest, he prefers the croquettes.

Judging by the sheer amount of steak skewers Chie has managed to eat in the past few minutes, she wouldn’t agree.

‘So, senpai,’ Rise says, her voice a little higher than it had been yesterday, ‘How are you finding Inaba?’

‘Wait, you just moved here too,’ Chie says, ‘Shouldn’t that be something I’m asking both of you?’

‘Oh, well, um, I’m only _sort of_ new. I moved in with my Grandma six months ago. She runs the tofu shop in the Shopping District. But I’ve been to Inaba lots before,’ Rise replies, ‘Um, so, if you guys want any tofu, we have the best! Haha. Grandma’s always saying things like that. She wants me to say it to everyone I meet as well.’

‘Marukyu, right? Oh yeah, Yukiko buys for the inn from there,’ Chie says, ‘How’s it doing, you know, since Junes showed up?’

‘Uh…I don’t know. But most of the Shopping District isn’t doing great right? And Grandma has it better than most, our tofu’s kind of exclusive…’ she says, and then looks over Souji’s shoulder and jumps to her feet, ‘Oh, Konishi-senpai!’

Turning around in his seat, Souji sees a grey-haired, tired-looking girl slowly walking up the road, her arms crossed and her gaze on the ground. He isn’t sure what she’s saying, but she’s definitely muttering to herself.

‘Hm? Isn't that Saki Konishi?' Chie says through a mouthful of steak, 'Isn't she in the year above us?'

‘A friend of yours?’ he asks Rise, who stares at the girl as though nobody else in the entire world has ever existed.

‘Huh?’ she mutters and looks down at Souji, her cheeks faintly pink, ‘Um, sort of? Her parents run the liquor store down the street. We hung out a little when I first moved here…she’s really nice, but I haven’t seen much of her since she started working at Junes. Um, hey! Senpai! Over here!’

Saki looks up, and something flickers across her face, if only for a second – irritation or embarrassment or concern, Souji isn’t sure, but then she walks over with just a tired smile on her face.

‘Oh. Hey, Risette,’ she says, ‘Been a while, hasn’t it?’

‘Hahahaha, yeah, um. Have you been busy? You haven’t really replied to any of my texts,’ Rise says, and then giggles, ‘I mean, that’s – that’s okay, obviously! I mean, you work and you’re so popular, you must be really busy.’

The pitch of her voice is reaching a height Souji wouldn’t have assumed possible. He exchanges a glance with Chie, who only shrugs, looking as confused as he feels.

‘Busy. Yeah,’ Saki says, sighing. Her gaze slides away from Rise and falls on Souji. ‘Oh, hey, you’re the new transfer student, Seta, right?’

Souji nods and takes a long drink of his soda.

‘It’s nice to see you’ve made a new friend, Risette. A boy, too. That’s good,’ Saki continues, nodding to herself.

‘Um, yeah. Do you wanna join us for a little, senpai?’ Rise says, scooting along on the bench and patting the space next to her. Saki glances at it, her expression briefly changing to suggest that Rise had just asked if she wanted to eat a giant tub of cockroaches with her, and then that same cool smile is back on her face.

‘Thanks, but I should get home,’ she says, and then looks at Souji again, ‘Risette can be a little needy sometimes, but I hope you get along with her.’

‘She’s not needy,’ Souji says, almost automatically.

‘Hahaha, aw, you’re so mean, Konishi-senpai!’ Rise giggles, twirling her ponytail around her finger. Chie stares at her, both of her eyebrows disappearing into her fringe.

‘Ha…yeah. Mean. That’s me. Anyway, I’m gonna go get home. Dad wants me to help out with some stuff around the store tonight,’ she says, huffing another enormous sigh. She holds up a hand to say goodbye and walks on, barely looking back at them.

‘Bye-bye, senpaI!’ Rise says, waving.

‘Ha, wow, um. You…like Saki-senpai a lot, don’t you?’ Chie says. Rise goes stiff, as though a cold wind just blew over her.

‘She was just really nice to me when I moved here, that’s all,’ she mumbles, ‘Um, oh! Have you guys heard of the Midnight Channel?’

‘Oh, yeah! I’ve heard of that!’ Chie replies, all thoughts of Saki flying from her mind, ‘We should try it, tonight! Souji-kun, have you heard of this? People are saying that on a rainy night, if you look into a turned-off TV at midnight, your soulmate will appear.’

‘I’m not sure it works though. I mean a guy in my class say Mayumi Yamano, and then she…well, she died, so…’ Rise says, scratching her neck, ‘Still, it could be fun. We should try it!’

Souji isn’t entirely sure how he ends up agreeing to do it, but he does.

**\--**

**Magician**

Rise doesn’t want to get too excited, but when she comes home that evening, she’s humming and dancing a little as she slices tofu for dinner. Grandma asks her, grinning, what she’s so excited about.

‘Oh, it’s nothing,’ she says, pushing a headphone off her ear, ‘Some people from the year above me invited me out after school today. We went to Souzai Daigaku down the street.’

‘Oh, that’s wonderful, Rise-chan,’ Grandma says, clapping her hands in front of her face, ‘I knew you’d make friends sooner or later. Who was it?’

‘Oh, um. Chie Satonaka, and the new boy from the city. They’re nice,’ she says, and it’s true, they are. She shouldn’t get too into it though – she did when Saki invited her out the first time, and then it never happened again. Maybe it was just a one-time thing. Maybe she’d made such an idiot of herself again, she shouldn’t really be holding her breath for a second invitation. She did act like a moron the second Saki showed up, she thinks.

She shakes her head. She can’t think like that. All she needs to do is figure out what kind of person they want her to be, and be that as hard as she can.

‘Oh, the Satonakas are a lovely family,’ Grandma says, nodding her approval, ‘I should give them a call to say thank you…’

‘Grandma! Don’t do that!’ Rise says, horrified. That would definitely make her seem like a loser, needing her grandma to thank someone just for _hanging out_ with her. Eventually, Grandma relents, clucking as though Rise were being entirely unreasonable. Her face flushed, Rise rushes her food into her bowl, grabbing a pair of chopsticks from the drawer.

‘I’m gonna eat this in my room, Grandma,’ she says, not really wanting to talk further in case Grandma decided to try to arrange a playdate for her or something.

‘Alright. Remember you have your appointment with Dr Kurosu before school tomorrow morning. You need to be up early.’

‘I know, I know,’ she sighs, and disappears up the stairs as quickly as she can.

The rain is pattering against the windows as she settles down cross-legged on her bed. Although she’s been here half a year now, Grandma’s spare room still doesn’t feel like home. She has her stuffed animals propped up against the wall on her bed, the walls pasted with posters of her favourite boy bands and idols, her manga stacked unevenly in the corner, and her CDs packed tightly together on the shelves above her desk. All the things she was used to seeing when she came home from school back home, exhausted, with all the day’s insults whirling around in her head, more than once with something in her hair or smeared on her uniform jacket.

It is better in Inaba, she guesses. Some of the girls in her class are mean to her, but none of it’s getting like –

Don’t think about it, she tells herself. Don’t even think about it.

Her bowl empty and set aside on her desk, Rise sits cross-legged and stares into the black screen on her TV. She’s heard of the Midnight Channel a bunch, but never really tried it. Those kinds of thing aren’t really much fun if you don’t have someone to tell about it.

She glances at the clock on her bedside. 11:59pm.

Right as the second hand ticks to the top, the TV comes on with a sickly electronic squeal, making her jump. She stands, barely able to believe it’s worked, and moves towards the screen. The image is fuzzy, neon yellow, and it takes Rise a second to recognise the figure in the centre. When she does, her heart leaps straight to her throat, knocking her dizzy.

She’s really been trying not to feel like that. She really has.

There’s no mistaking the girl on the screen. It’s Konishi-senpai.

\--

**Fool**

‘Oh, hey, there she is. Rise-chan! Hey, hey! Rise-chan!’ Chie calls. Rise jumps at the sound of her name, but seems to relax when she turns around and sees them both standing there.

‘Oh, hey guys,’ she says.

‘Haha, man, what’s with you? You’re almost as spacy as he’s been today,’ Chie says, nudging Souji. Souji shuffles his feet – okay, so he messed up the answer in class earlier. Normally, he’s extraordinarily precise about that kind of thing. Last night was…weird, though. It’s been hard to shake it off all day.

‘Oh, sorry. I, um, I’ve just been thinking,’ she says, her voice as low and gloomy as when they first met her, ‘Hey, um, you guys didn’t try that Midnight Channel thing last night, did you?

‘Oh, is that what’s bugging you?’ Chie says, ‘Yeah, I did. And you know what, I totally saw someone! It was, um, a little weird though. I’m pretty sure I saw a girl. I mean, my soulmate’s a girl? What’s that supposed to –‘

Souji nudges her, seeing the wounded look on Rise’s face.

‘Not that that’s weird or anything! Haha, I mean, just – yeah!’ Chie says, laughing, ‘I couldn’t tell who it was though. Did you see anyone, Rise-chan?’

Rise bites her lip.

‘I saw someone too, and, um. I think it was Konishi-senpai,’ she says, her voice barely more than a whisper.

‘Wait! Wait! That’s right! That’s who I saw too!’ Chie exclaims, ‘Huh? Does that mean we have the same soulmate? How is that supposed to work?’

‘What about you, senpai? Did you see Konishi-senpai too?’ Rise asks.

‘No,’ Souji says, ‘My TV tried to eat me.’

‘Uh…what,’ both girls chorus at once. Souji shakes his head and tries to explain the whole story – the weird voice in his head, getting stuck in the TV, both girls looking more and more incredulous by the second.

‘Haha, wow. Uh, sounds like you dozed off, senpai,’ Rise says, giggling.

‘Yeah, have you been getting enough sleep lately?’ Chie asks. Souji shakes his head. He’s certain it wasn’t a dream – he has the lump on the back of his head to prove it. He’s about to try and plead his case further when Chie interrupts him, ‘Oh! That reminds me, I’m supposed to go to Junes after school to look at the TVs there, you guys wanna come? Souji-kun, you haven’t visited Junes yet, right?’

Clearly, neither of them are interested in the fact Souji’s TV attempted to murder him. He can’t exactly _blame_ them, but it isn’t making him feel any less crazy.

‘Oh, yeah, I should probably get some groceries for Grandma on my way home too…Senpai, you’re coming, right?’ Rise says, giving him a big, gooey-eyed smile. Honestly, how could he say no?

 

‘So what kind of TV are your parents looking for Chie-senpai?’ Rise asks. The girls are ahead of him, comparing the enormous price tags on a set of wide-screens, tutting and squinting.

‘I dunno. Big. And cheap?’ Chie replies, tone uncertain.

‘Um…well, I dunno. These things are big, but they’re sure not cheap,’ Rise says, and then cranes her neck to look around, ‘Sheesh, aren’t there any staff around here?’

She’s right – while most of the Junes is busy, the electronics section remains desolate. He supposes that while everyone needs new groceries, not everyone needs a new TV.

He stares at the widescreen in front of him. Now that thing, that thing he could fit into.

If Souji’s honest with himself, he’s not entirely sure what goes through his head when he first puts his hand in. And he’s really not sure what he’s thinking when he puts his whole torso in. But he doesn’t expect the girls to start screaming and throw themselves both in with him.

\--

**Magician**

Teddie, the fog, Chie’s hysterics, that horrible room with the noose…it was all way too much. It's the kind of thing that a normal girl should not still be thinking about.

Rise is, though. She thinks about it all the way home, looking at her TV and wondering if she could just push her hand in there herself. Wonders what would happen if she tried to go back.

As Rise bundles herself into bed, she swears she’s going to push that whole weird world inside of the TV out of her mind. The noose, all those torn posters, that blood and all that fog – all of it was the kind of thing that no teenage girl should want. Chie-senpai seemed like she just wanted to forget the whole thing happened, and Chie is the kind of person she should want to be. Chatty and friendly and extraverted and, meat-eating and kung-fu aside, a very very normal girl.

What she should want, is to forget that ever happened. She should go to school, she should stop obsessing over Konishi-senpai, she should try and make some more friends, she should find a nice boy, she should join an after-school club or something. She should not be thinking about it.

Yet even as she squeezes her eyes closed, trying to focus on the classes she has tomorrow, about the boy who sits beside her who is sorta-kinda-cute-she-guesses, her thoughts drift again to that place, full of thick fog, and mysteries.

The truth of the matter is, that she wants to go there again.

The rain is still pattering outside of her window. She sits up, and crossed the room. She reaches out and touches the television screen with the tips of her fingers, almost expecting it to slip through. The monitor remains solid, the pads of her fingers pressing ripple into the screen.

The clock hits midnight, and the screen flickers to life.

 

‘I regret to say that I have a terrible announcement for all of you. One of our third-year students, Ms Saki Konishi of class 3…has passed away.’

As soon as the headmaster says it, it feels as though the ice that has been creaking beneath Rise’s feet, for a long time, gives way. Everything else he says, the mutterings of the other students, they’re all low and burbling, as though from far away. She can see Chie, twisting around to look at her, her brow creased with concern, but it’s as though Rise can’t put the pieces of the picture together in front of her. It’s all just noises, and colours, and none of it makes sense.

People are moving out of the room, and Rise is trying to move with them, but her legs aren’t connected to her body, and she can’t concentrate.

‘Rise, Rise,’ says a low, quiet voice above her. She feels hands on her shoulders, steering her out of the room. She sinks down onto the stairs, accepts a cup of water that trembles as she tries to drink from it.

Underneath the shock, the mounting horror at the mental image of Saki’s corpse swinging its ankles from a telephone wire, something else writhes. Something wriggling and dark, trying to force itself out.

 _Finally,_ a voice that sounds like her own sneers, _finally._

\--

**Fool**

‘Poor Rise-chan…’ Chie says, again, ‘Do you think she went home?’

Souji shakes his head. It sounded as though she wanted to just go back to class. In a way, Souji can understand that. It’s easier to just keep going, sometimes, than to stop and let it sink in. Judging by the look on Chie’s face, it’s nothing something she relates to easily.

‘Let’s just try and act normally,’ he says, because Chie looks as though she wants him to say something. She sighs, looking at the floor.

‘Right, right…I don’t know how anyone can act normally. A kid at our school died, for crying out loud!’

Souji has to admit – he’s been to a lot of different schools, in a lot of different cities, but he’s never seen anything like this happen before.

‘Senpai?’

They jump and turn to see Rise standing behind them, her hands behind her back. The disorientation that had swept over her during assembly looked as though it had passed – she was standing straighter than usual, her feet further apart, a certain set in her jaw.

‘Woah, Rise-chan! Are you feeling any better?’

‘Um, yeah, I think the shock passed, but…I’ve been thinking,’ she said, ‘Did either of you check out the TV last night?’

‘The TV?’ he asks, not expecting this line of questioning.

‘The Midnight Channel. I decided to watch it again last night, and I saw Konishi-senpai again, but it was different. She looked as though she was in pain.’

Chie and Souji exchange a glance. Rise takes a breath, closing her eyes.

‘So, I think. That creepy place might have something to do with how senpai died!’ she blurts out, ‘And I know this is going to sound crazy, but I think we should go there again.’

‘What? Rise-chan, you can’t be serious!’ Chie shouts. A few passing students pause to watch, and with a nudge from Souji, she drops her voice to a hiss, ‘We can’t go _back_ there. It’s only because that weird bear showed up we got out of there at all.’

‘Well, I can’t leave this,’ she says, and looks at Souji, ‘Senpai, I can’t get there without you but, please…I need to know what happened to Konishi-senpai. That world, the things we’ve been seeing on TV, or Konishi-senpai…I don’t think they’re coincidences!’

‘Rise-chan, we should leave this to the police! Don’t –‘

‘We can’t trust adults to sort this kind of thing out,’ Rise interrupts, so sharply that Chie falls quiet. She turns her attention back to Souji, and it feels like a spotlight. After a second, he nods, slowly.

‘Yeah, I think I see your point,’ he says.

‘Not you too,’ Chie groans.

‘Okay. We’ll meet at the electronic section in Junes after school,’ she says, and then forces a smile, ‘If we’re prepared this time, nothing can go wrong.’

Before Souji can say anything else, Rise sweeps off, her head low and her hair falling in front of her eyes. At the end of the hallway she pauses, spotting some girls from her class million round, and ducks out another door, clearly deciding to take the long way around. Chie lets out a low sigh.

‘Aw, sheesh. That girl changes like the weather,’ she says, ‘I guess we need to go, though. Someone needs to stop her.’

 

When they arrive, Rise is waiting for them in front of the TV they fell in last time, a length of rope looped over her forearm, and something long tucked under her arm. Her eyes are scanning, across, and then wandering across the ceiling, and when they fall on Chie and Souji, she lights up from the inside-out.

‘You’re here,’ she says, her tone so grateful, ‘Okay! Here, senpai, take this!’

With a grin, she pushes something into Souji’s arms. A lacrosse stick. He frowns at it.

‘Well, if we encounter something down there, I figured you needed something to protect us, right?’ she said, ‘Um, that’s the best I could do though…it’s really old, my Mom used to play when she was in high school, apparently…’

‘Wait, Rise-chan, you really shouldn’t do this,’ Chie says, ‘This is nuts!’

Rise pushes the rope into Chie’s hand, revealing the other end of it tied tight around her own waist. Chie looks at it as though Rise just put a live python into her hands.

‘W-what? Is this a lifeline?’

‘Well…yeah. We got lucky last time. This time, you need to be able to pull us out if we need to leave.’

‘What am I meant to do? Stand here in the middle of Junes with a rope sticking out of a TV? We don’t know this will work!’

‘Okay, senpai, it’s up to you to get us in. Um,’ she says, and reaches forward to grasp the sleeve of Souji’s uniform jacket, her face pale but determined. Souji has to admit, he can’t leave this alone either.

Ignoring Chie’s cries of protest, he reaches forward and breaks the surface of the screen, Rise’s hand hot and tight on his arm.

\--

**Magician**

It was Rise’s idea to come back, but now she’s here, there’s a big part of her that just wants to make Teddie send them straight back. Another part of her wants to hang onto Souji’s arm for dear life, terrified that something less friendly than Teddie is bound to emerge from the fog sooner or later.

As is, she just walks beside him as they wander through the twisted shopping district, trying to keep her chin up, and a smile on her face. It’s like how her auntie tried to teach her to walk, her knees in and her back straight, smiling with her teeth and her eyes.

For a while, she thought she had been getting the hang of it. Before…well.

Shaking her head, Rise pushes those thoughts aside. She needs to focus on Konishi-senpai right now.

‘It’s creepy here, right?’ she says, to break the silence. Souji nods, his grip right around the lacrosse stick.

‘I really wouldn’t want to be thrown in here…’ she mutters, her heart thumping with the thoughts of Konishi-senpai in this dark, strange place, alone and scared…

‘It never used to be this big,’ Teddie pipes up from behind them, ‘This place never existed before…everything’s getting so tangled up.’

‘It never existed before?’ Rise repeats, ‘Then why did it show up now?’

‘How am I meant to know?’ Teddie whines, ‘This place is reality for those who are in here…’

‘Wait, reality…?’ Rise repeats, ‘Then when did this place appear?

‘Um, well…around the last time someone was thrown in.’

Something clicks in Rise’s head. If this place was reality for whoever was here, and it only showed up when senpai had been thrown in…

‘Senpai!’ Rise says, grabbing Souji’s wrist, ‘This way!’

Souji almost drops the lacrosse stick, his eyes widening, but lets Rise pull him along. She can hear the squeak of Teddie’s boots following behind. As Rise expects, the shopping district stretches out, past the shrine, Souzai Daigaku, and then…

‘The liquor store,’ Souji says, realisation dawning on him. Rise drops his arm and stares up at the sign _Konishi Liquors_ hanging above the doorway, chewing on her lip. The door itself is gone, replaced by something red and black and undulating.

She steps towards it, reaching out.

Before she can say anything more, something oozes out of the doorway and she stumbles back, tripping on her own feet. Two creatures, floating, waxy spheres with gaping mouths and dripping tongues, form and loom towards them. Rise lets out a squeal, shuffling back on her hands and knees. Teddie lets out a cry. The things move forward, and Rise yelps and puts her hands over her head.

Yet they ignore her completely, zipping past her and straight towards Souji.

Rise only stands in time to see Souji crush something in his palm, light erupting from his body, and a figure emerge above him.

 

‘Senpai, that was amazing!’ she says, as soon as the creatures disappear and Souji lowers the lacrosse stick, ‘What…did you say, what was it, ‘Persona’ or…?’

‘His name’s Izanagi,’ he replies, deadpan.

‘Izanagi? As in _that_ Izanagi?’

‘Rise-chan, don’t bother sensei,’ Teddie interrupts, wiggling a finger (…paw pad?) at her.

‘Sensei?’ Souji repeats, bemused, as though summoning an ancient god and fighting off two hideous monsters with a stick is something he does every day. Teddie hangs onto Souji’s hand and babbles away about his amazing potential. Souji shrugs him off and looks at her.

‘Well…it _was_ amazing,’ she says, ‘Sorry I wasn’t really much use. But hey, with you fighting, and Teddie providing back-up, I think we should be okay! Just…protect me if anything else happens, okay?’

She’s mostly saying it as a little joke, but Souji just nods as solemnly as though he’s swearing a blood oath. Rise clears her throat and turns her attention back to the liquor store, her stomach clenching.

‘C’mon. Let’s go inside…I want to see if this tells us anything else about Konishi-senpai.’

 

Stepping into the store, Rise expects the smell of stale liquor, or the strange musty scent pervading the rest of the TV world. What she isn’t expecting is the smell of Konishi-senpai’s perfume to hit her like a punch to the chest, hard enough to almost make her dizzy. She’d wanted to ask Saki where she bought it, and never managed to work up the nerve.

The voices continue to boom about Junes, about the Konishis’ family business going under, but it’s nothing Rise doesn’t already know. Everyone in town knows how hard it had been for the shopping district since Junes arrived, and everyone knows how much the people there gossiped about Saki for taking the job at Junes.

The liquor store looks like it was the one or two times Rise visited it herself. A little messier, maybe, but just the same as ever.

‘Rise,’ Souji says, from over at the counter. He looks at her over his shoulders, his lips drawn into a thin line, ‘Come look at this.’

‘Huh, senpai, what are you – oh.’

The counter is covered in scraps of photos – Saki’s friends, the part-timers at Junes, that boy she mentioned, once or twice, and then…the scrap in Souji’s hand. A picture of her. It’s from the purikura they took together, when Saki invited her to go with the rest of her friends at Okina.

Rise has the same picture taped down inside her diary. She doesn’t often like photos of herself, but she liked that one. With her hair in pigtails, a big honest grin on her face, surrounded by a bunch of girls her age all smiling and laughing. She looks like a pretty, ordinary high school girl in it.

‘We took this together, why is it all torn up like this?’ she says.

‘Risette…’

Rise jumps, looking around, almost expecting to see Saki standing behind the kegs of sake, hiding in the shadows. She isn’t though, it’s just like all those other voices. Echoes of other things, all the feelings Saki had been bottling up.

‘Senpai?’ she croaks. Beside her, Souji tightens his grip on the lacrosse stick and raises it, ready for a fight.

‘I really wanted to tell her, but…’ Saki’s voice continues, ‘I never could find a way to say…that I wanted her to _leave me the hell alone!’_

It’s like being slapped. Rise staggers, reaching out with a hand to steady herself on the counter. Her heart thumps in her throat. It’s not shock, not really. It’s not as though she never suspected, never noticed the way Saki cringed when she saw Rise approach her in school. Rise just always tried to convince herself it was just her own problems, the lack of self-esteem her therapist always talked about. All in her head, all something to be overcome with optimism.

All of that made solid in front of her, though, that was what was unbearable.

‘I was nice to her because I felt _sorry_ for her. Everyone said she’d been picked on at her last school, so I just wanted to be nice. But then she got all _clingy…_ texting me every day, hanging out outside my classroom at the end of school. It was so pathetic, it made me sick.’

Rise can feel Souji looking at her, but she doesn’t want to look back. She doesn’t want to see whatever expression he’s making right now. Pity, disgust, whatever, she doesn’t want to see any of it.

‘I had enough on my plate, before dealing with some stupid underclassman’s creepy crush…urgh. My Dad getting on my case, Junes, the store…I wish everything would just disappear.’

‘Creepy…’ Rise repeats, and she’s known for so long, exactly how it seemed. She’s known how much she liked Konishi-senpai wasn’t, well, it wasn’t _normal_ for a girl her age, but she couldn’t stop it. Just like she couldn’t stop texting, or trying to catch her after school, or just trying, however, to get her attention and try to get invited back out again.

‘That’s how she really saw me?’ she says, her voice cracking. But she knew. She always, always knew.

‘Aww, poor little Rise-chan…’

It takes Rise a second to register what she’s hearing – her own voice, high and giggly, calling out from the corner of the room. She looks, her heart in her stomach, and sees herself, sitting on top of a keg with her legs crossed.

‘It’s sooooo hard being me, isn’t it? Just this gloomy, pathetic little nobody…’

It looks exactly like her, from the dimples in her cheek to the way her dark hair falls in waves. The girl is wearing her old uniform from middle school. It’s exactly – the big stupid red bow on the chest, the pleated skirt, the thick woolen stockings and the clumpy black shoes. Its hair is down, falling across its face, almost completely covering its eyes. What she can see of the thing’s eyes are sharp, golden, and trained upon her so exactly it makes her go cold.

‘But actually, this is exactly what I wanted, isn’t it? Ha ha ha ha!’ the thing says, laughing behind her hand.

‘Another Rise-chan?’ Teddie blurts out. The thing winks at him, its smile sparkling.

‘Bingo!’ it says, and hops down from the keg, and stands, tossing her hair so it falls behind her shoulder, revealing her face, ‘I’m Rise Kujikawa! Failed idol, pathetic stalker, and the biggest loser in Inaba! But hey, it looks like my time to shine has finally come, riiiight?

‘What? What are you saying?’ Rise splutters, ‘I don’t want any of this!’

‘Oh please! This is exactly what you’ve been dreaming about!’ it says, ‘Something big and exciting to change your pathetic little life. Oh, don’t look like that. You pretend you don’t want it, but that’s what you _need_. Konishi dying, well, that’s just what needed to kick-start it. How quickly did you decide to come back here after hearing about poor sweet senpai’s death? I mean, maybe now you get to play the hero, and you can actually make some friends! It’s not like I can make any on my own, after all!’

Cold panic feels as though it’s winding its way tight around Rise’s chest. All those tiny thoughts, those tiny, horrible little thoughts, being spilled out in front of one of the only friends she has. She looks back at Souji and sees him standing, looking struck, and she knows he’s listening.

‘What! I don’t – senpai, don’t listen to it! It doesn’t know what it’s talking about. I don’t feel like this,’ she says, babbling.

‘Yeah right! You know, I don’t blame Konishi-senpai for thinking we’re so pathetic. All it took was one moment of someone being nice to you, and that was it, wasn’t it? You were smitten. So few people have been kind to poor little Rise-chan,’ it continues, its high voice echoing off the walls of the liquor store, ‘And so you thought, for a minute, Inaba would be different. You wanted so badly to be bubbly and light-hearted and fun, and you’ve tried so hard to be like that before, but it’s never lasted, has it? At some point, the mask always slips.’

The thing sighs, and lets its hair fall in front of its face again, voice dropping to low murmur.

‘Because at our core, we’re just the same gloomy, sad little girl crying because we can’t make any friends.’

‘No, I – I – what are you? Who are you?’

‘Hahaha! Wow, look at you panic. You know who I am. I’m you. I know everything you’re thinking, everything you’ve ever wanted,’ it says, grinning, ‘And I know, deep down, you’ll be glad senpai’s dead if it gives you the chance to feel less alone.’

The words tear out of Rise’s mouth before she can help it, as though the thing’s words have clawed inside of her and wrenched at something red and raw.

‘No! That’s not true! You’re not me!’

The thing giggles and squeals, its face distorting, and Rise is blown off her feet by a rush of wind from it. She sits up and sees the huge, misshapen figure of a girl hanging by her ankles from the rafters of the store, still in Rise’s old middle school uniform. Its face is a flat grey expanse, as though it was wearing a mask pulled over its heard, aside from an unmoving, glittering smile.

‘That’s right, I am a Shadow, the true self,’ the thing says, still in her own voice, ‘And I’ll keep you here with me _forever_ , no matter who I have to be to do it!’

Swinging back and forth, the thing rears back an arm to strike her. Rise covers her head, too terrified to think, or move, or do anything at all.

Souji steps in front of her.

 

As Souji calls down another crackling bolt of lightning, the thing – the Shadow – finally lets out a scream and dissolves. All that’s left behind is the figure of the girl, her hair hanging front of her face again, her eyes wide and blank.

‘Rise-chan, are you okay?’ Teddie says, helping her to her feet. ‘I think so…’ she says, and looks up. The girl is still staring at her, almost sad.

‘You – what? Got nothing left to say?’ she snarls at it. Souji is breathing heavily, his shoulders slumped.

‘Rise-chan, don’t…that thing came from inside you,’ Teddie interrupts, ‘If you don’t accept it, sensei will have to fight it all over again.’

‘Accept it?’ she mutters, ‘How can I accept something like that?’

She feels a hand on her shoulder. She turns her head to see Souji standing beside her, his face tense.

‘I…think everyone has thoughts like that sometimes…thoughts they’re not proud of,’ he says, slowly, as though he was choosing every single word with the utmost care, ‘And I think everyone struggles to change. There’s nothing wrong with you for that.’

‘Ha,’ she says, a little hollow and breathless, ‘You’d be the first person to think something like that about me, senpai. But. Okay.’

She takes a deep breath and steps forward towards the girl.

‘I’m sorry. All of that denial must have really been hurting you,’ she says, ‘It’s true. You’re me too, all of those horrible things, they’re me as well.’

The girl nods, once, and then falls apart, revealing the figure of a tall slim woman. For a second, the room disappears around her, and Rise feels the warmth of a breeze pass through her. The woman in front of her wears a long white dress that pools around her feet, with billowing red sleeves. Her hands are clasped together in front of her chest, as though in prayer, and around her neck is a heavy necklace of golden bells. There’s a crown around her head that looks more like a cloud of golden stars and swirling nebulas.

The woman opens her eyes for just a second, to look at her, and closes them again with a small smile.

Himiko rises up from inside her, and the force of it knocks Rise to her knees. It’s not a bad feeling, but it’s overwhelming, and for a second Rise can’t even move. She chokes out a laugh.

‘Aw, sheesh…I can’t believe Konishi-senpai thought I was such a pain…haha,’ she says, ‘Well, I guess I always knew.’

She looks up, grinning a little self-deprecatingly.

‘Hey, if I’m ever that much of a pain for you, senpai, you just let me know, okay?’

Souji frowns and shakes his head. Reaching down, he pulls her to her feet again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey did anybody order some idol Yosuke because I've got some.

**Magician**

When Yukiko goes missing, Rise is determined not to show weakness again. She steals two of Grandma’s sharpest knives from the shop, practicing using them with quick stabs and slashes. She buys a sword from Daidara’s with her savings, and presses it into Souji’s hand under the table in Junes. She closes her eyes, sometimes, and feels Himiko breathing inside her, bright and strong and braver than she is.

When Chie’s Shadow appears, just like her own did, Rise grips her knives, one in each hand, and winces off the sting of a whip on her side. At her side, Souji flickers from Persona to Persona, hurling fire in the enemy’s face, swiping at it with his sword. She moves quickly, dancing out of the whip’s razor edge, stabbing her knife one minute, and calling upon Himiko to heal them, or make them faster, or stronger, or hardier, whatever she can do to help.

As Tomoe emerges from the snarling mess of Chie’s own repressed feelings, Rise bites back a little snap of jealousy and manages to smile. When Chie falters, she offers her shoulder, and helps carry her out of the TV and back to the real world.

Rise has only really had someone rely on her once, and she screwed that up. She won’t let that happen again.

\--

**Fool**

‘Are you sure this is okay? It feels as though we’re playing hooky every time we’re not in the TV lately, senpai,’ Rise says, as Souji places a can of soda and a plate of steak skewers in front of her. He smiles as he sits down opposite her.

‘It’s good to rest. The rain won’t come for a while,’ he says. That, and he suspects Chie would wear herself out if she kept going at her current pace. Rise, too, wasn’t really pacing herself properly. Evert time they got into a fight, both girls threw themselves into it so viciously, Souji found himself needing to just stand back and heal them, barely able to take the time to throw an attack himself.

For Chie, the rationale behind aggressiveness were clear. Yukiko was her best friend, had been for years. As for why Rise was straining herself so badly…he wasn’t so sure. He has a feeling that she’s not as over Saki, or her Shadow, as hard as she pretends to be.

‘Yeah, I guess,’ Rise replies, fiddling with the wire of her headphones, ‘Still, I feel like the sooner we get Yukiko-senpai out of there, the better.’

He isn’t sure how to ask her. At his old schools, he generally tried to keep people at arms distance. When you’ve seen someone’s darkest secrets spilled out in front of you, though, that distance has already been closed.

As he tries to work his way up to asking her why she’s pushing herself so hard, they’re interrupted by loud, fast chattering and laughter. Rise hunches into herself, as though trying to disappear, and Souji glances around to see a cluster of first-year girls walking past them.

They glance at Rise as they go past, dissolving into giggles, and walk on, chattering. None of them even bothering to keep their voice down.

‘Isn’t that Kujikawa-san?’

‘Mhm, I guess she’s hanging out with the other transfer student now.’

‘Aw, I thought Seta-senpai seemed cool. Why is he hanging out with _her_?’

‘Maybe he doesn’t know?’

‘No way. Everyone knows what a loser she is,’ the other girl snaps, and shakes her head, ‘She was so obsessed with Saki-senpai…it was so _weird_.’

‘Ha ha, did you hear? Saki told her she had a boyfriend once, and Kujikawa looked so _sad_ , like a little dog that had just gotten kicked.’

‘Oh my God! That’s so creepy. What did she _expect_?’

Some of the girls screech with laughter, others glancing back at the two of them and shushing them, their own mouths twitching. They rush on, disappearing down the street and turning off towards Junes. Across from him, Rise sits with her fists bunched in her lap, her shoulders hunched as though she was trying to curl in on herself and disappear.

‘They don’t know what they’re talking about,’ he says, ‘Don’t let them get to you.’

Rise looks up at him with a smile, blinking hard.

‘Ha, it’s okay, senpai,’ she says, ‘They’re not wrong exactly. I made an idiot of myself with Konishi-senpai. I know that.’

Souji falls silent, wishing he had something better to say. Rise smiles, offering him a brave smile, and then stands.

‘Ha, sorry, but I think I’m gonna head home for the day,’ she says, ‘Thanks for asking me out though. I’ll try to be less of a downer next time.’

‘You’re not a downer,’ he replies automatically. Rise giggles, tilting her head and looking at him, a little sympathetic. As though he just said something really silly.

‘You’re way too nice, senpai,’ she says, shaking her head, ‘Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.’

\--

**Magician**

‘Ooh, what’s this? Three princes are here to see me? My, my…’ Shadow Yukiko purrs.

‘Three princes? You mean one, right?’ Chie stutters, looking between them. Rise tenses, her hands tight around her knives. Chie looks close to panic, ‘Uh, is she counting you and me, Rise-chan…?’

‘No way, I’m one of the princes, aren’t I?’ Teddie interrupts. Rise has her doubts. The way the Shadow is looking at Souji, and her, and Chie, it’s the same. Hungry, and demanding.

Beside her, Chie looks uncharacteristically pale. Rise catches her eye, gives her a tiny nod. Just trying to say its okay – whatever the Shadow is saying, whatever she really means, it’s okay. Chie swallows, nods back, and looks a little better for it.

Before any of them can stop her, Yukiko is on her feet and calls out exactly what the Shadow wants to hear.

Yukiko’s Shadow is, by far, the toughest enemy they’ve faced so far. Harder even than facing down Rise’s Shadow by himself. As the cage crashes to the throne room floor and the shadow itself dissolves in a burst of black fog, all three of them are almost on the floor. Rise’s hands are sore and shaking, her uniform jacket sticking to her back.

Yukiko, still in that kimono, tired, but blissfully unhurt, faces up to her Shadow just as well as the other three girls had.

In Junes, Chie jumps at the chance to take Yukiko home, half-carrying her over her shoulder. Yukiko’s hands curl up a little in her jacket, her smile small but intensely grateful, and something about it makes Rise’s heart skip a beat.

Stupid.

Souji looks at her out of the corner of his eye.

‘Are you feeling okay?’ he asks.

‘Ha, they’re really close, aren’t they?’ she says, her voice high and vapid, ‘I gotta say. I’m kinda jealous. I’ve never really had a best friend.’

He tilts his head.

‘What about me?’

‘I’m your…’ Rise mutters, and then feels her face heat up, ‘Well, haha, wow. I uh, I guess we are, huh? Do you think that’s weird? For a guy and a girl to…’

‘Not really,’ he replies, shrugging, ‘And I mean, you were made an honorary prince today, so…’

Rise snorts and calls him a big idiot, but she’s giddy the whole walk home.

 

Kanji Tatsumi is an anomaly. He’s in her grade, even in her homeroom, but she’s never even seen him on school grounds before. She thinks she’s seen him around the shopping district before, skulking around himself and looking mean. She always crosses the street and walks the other way if she sees him hanging around.

So, what his Midnight Channel programme turns out to be is…uh…

Interesting.

Rise isn’t really in a position to judge, all things considered, but. Wow.

Souji, impressively, seems undeterred by the Shadow, even when they’re preparing to dive into the bathhouse for the first time.  Rise doesn’t really know a lot about boys, but she suspects that most guys would completely freak out. She tries to imagine the guys in her class calmly traversing the hallways of a steamy men’s bathhouse, and the image just won’t quite come together.

When Kanji’s Shadow says he’d make a great boyfriend, he doesn’t even flinch. Just tilts his head to the side, smiles a little even as the real Kanji bellows out denials.

And when the Shadow falls, Souji is the first one to step forward and put his hand on the real Kanji’s shoulder, assuring him that it’ll be okay.

It’s cool, she thinks. Souji is cool.

She’s not unique for thinking that. A lot of the girls in her school think Souji is cool. Most of them, though, don’t really see beyond the deadpan attitude, the high grades, or all the afterschool clubs. They don’t see him feeding stray cats in town, singing the Junes theme tune with little Nanako, or helping Chie practice her kung fu, even if it gives him a bloody nose or two.

It’s that stuff though, how much he cares about his family and his friends, how easily he accepts someone like Kanji (or someone like her, a voice in her whispers), how hard he refuses to get dragged into Inaba’s gossip, that’s the kind of thing that makes him really cool. It’s what makes her proud to call him her senpai, and her best friend.

A traitorous voice inside her, from deep in the same place Himiko sleeps, reminds her that this is just like how she felt about the last senpai who paid attention to her.

She swallows, pushes the thought far, far away, and turns over to try to sleep.

\--

**Fool**

Souji comes home after the (only slightly disastrous) camp-out to a very familiar song, and a very familiar voice singing along to it.

‘Everybody fight, everybody fight, everybody fi-i-ight!’

Souji loves Nanako more than life itself. But if he swears, there’s only so many times he can hear that song before he loses his mind. He swears that Junes just plays it on loop, interspersed with the Junes jingle.

‘Big bro, you’re home!’ she says, twirling around on her toes, and then gestures at the TV screen, playing some kind of entertainment show, ‘Look, look, JUNE-5 are on TV again! Apparently they have a special announcement!’

‘A special announcement?’ he asks, putting down his bag and coming to join her at the table. On screen, five skinny boys in complicated outfits and a lot of gel in their hair are dancing and lip-syncing to upbeat pop songs, as well as occasionally miming playing an electronic guitar.

If Souji’s honest, he can’t really tell when one JUNE-5 song ends, and another begins. He also can’t remember which one is which, despite Nanako describing each member in excruciating detail to him multiple times. All the guys in it are cute, he guesses, but they just look like every other boy band he’s ever seen in his life.

Nanako likes them though, and that’s what matters.

‘Maybe they’re going on tour?’ he suggests.

‘Ooh, ooh, do you think they’ll come to Inaba?’ Nanako asks.

‘…Maybe somewhere close by,’ he says, ‘If they do, me and Rise will take you.’

‘Does Rise-chan like them too?’ she says. Souji nods.

‘She does.’

Well, if the contents of her phone are anything to go by, anyway. In fact, he’s pretty sure all of his friends would be happy to take Nanako to that concert. He’s heard Yukiko humming along more than once too, and Chie seems suspiciously well-informed about idol gossip in general. He wonders if it’d be worth the trouble of texting Kanji to find out his opinion.

‘Oh, yay! Yeah, remember, you promised, okay?’ she says, her face shining. On-screen, the boys finish their number, and give a bow to the screaming applause. Nanako returns her attention to the screen, tugging on Souji’s sleeve, ‘Oh, oh, look. They’re about to make the announcement.’

The boys wave to the crowd, and jostle amongst themselves for a second, laughing, exchanging some vague banter. Nanako giggles appreciatively, but Souji can’t help but think it seems a little…staged.

‘Thank you everyone!’ cries the tallest boy – Souji thinks his name is Ryuuji or something – waving to the crowd, ‘Now we have a special announcement from JUNE-5’s youngest member, Yosuke Hanamura. Go ahead, Hana-chan.’

The camera closes in on the boy with the orange hair and the yellow neckerchief. Souji recognises him immediately – he’s practically the Junes poster boy lately. While all of the boys did Junes commercials, and had their merchandise and ads hanging in store, Hana-chan seemed to be the one Junes used the most. Or at least, the one that the Junes in Inaba used the most.

 As Ryuuji passes him the microphone, he gives Hana-chan a playful shove, grinning at him with all of his teeth. The boy drops the microphone, prompting ripples of giggling laughter from the audience, and from Nanako.

‘Haha, Hana-chan’s so funny,’ she says, ‘He’s my favourite.’

Hana-chan doesn’t really seem to be in on the joke as he scoops up the microphone. He chokes out a barking laugh, but it doesn’t really sound genuine. In fact, with the camera as close as it is, Souji thinks he looks kind of tired.

‘Hey everyone,’ he says, his voice low, ‘Thanks again for having me. Uh. I’m sorry to say, this will be my last time performing with JUNE-5 for a long while. From tomorrow, I’ll be taking an extended hiatus.’

The crowd start yelling, some moaning, some shrieking. At the mixed reaction, Hanamura winces.

‘So, please listen to our last number together. Uh…yeah…’ he trails off. The other four members of the band glance at him, and then at each other, at this lame send-off. Nanako’s brow furrows as they jump into their last number (indistinguishable from the previous six).

‘Oh, he’s leaving…? Why?’ she says, and then looks at Souji, ‘Don’t you think he’s having fun?’

‘Maybe he wants to focus on school,’ he says vaguely, though he can’t help but think, watching him perform, he doesn’t look as though he’s having much fun at all.

After the performance, the band members all settle down on the couch to be interviewed, but the other four members may as well not be there. The interviewer focuses almost entirely on Hanamura.

‘So, it says here you’ll be recuperating? Have you been facing physical health problems as of late, Hana-chan?’ the interviewer asks, leaning forward on his chair. Hanamura looks alarmed, glancing at the other band members for help. All of them avoid his eyes.

‘Huh? No, that’s not it…’ he stutters, ‘I –‘

‘Psychological problems then?’

‘What?’ he says, and then glances back at the agency spokesperson behind them, who shakes her head. Before she can intervene, or Yosuke can answer, the woman pushes on with her next question.

‘It says you’ll be living with your family in Inaba? Isn’t that where the murders have been taking place? Is that really the best place to recover from stress?’

Hanamura lets out a strained laugh.

‘Haha, c’mon, did I say anything about stress? I mean, working with this band is really stressful, I’ll give you that!’ he jokes, prompting laughter from the interviewer, and offended glances from the rest of the band. Souji cringes.

‘Well, why Inaba then? Do you have a special girl there?’

‘Huh? No, no, I just –‘

‘Doesn’t your Dad manage the new branch of Junes in Inaba?’ he says, and then gasps, ‘Is that connection the secret of JUNE-5’s recent marketing success?’

The other boys look less and less happy with this line of questioning by the second.

‘No, I – uh –‘

‘Okay, no more questions!’ the agency spokesperson intervenes, with a glittering smile. The interviewer laughs and smiles, almost like he means it, before moving swiftly on to the next portion of the show.

‘Wait, Hana-chan’s moving _here_?’ Nanako says, gaping, ‘And his Dad runs Junes? Wow! Do you think if Dad takes us to Junes we can meet him?’

‘Maybe, you probably should let him have his privacy though…’ he says quietly. Nanako begins to chatter excitably about whether or not she’d have the chance to meet her favourite boyband member, but Souji’s isn’t really listening. His mind instead returns to the possible pattern Rise described last time they met up – that victims would appear on TV first.

If that’s the case, and if Hanamura is coming back to Inaba, that would put him directly in the line of fire.

He checks his phone. As he expected, Rise’s name is the first thing to pop up.

_senpai i fink we hav a new lead (_ _ॣ•͈_ _૦•͈_ _ॣ) lets check the midnite channel nxt time it rains!!!_

 

‘Uh, so why are we going to Junes again?’ Kanji asks.

‘Urgh, Kanji-kun, weren’t you listening?’ Rise says, pouting, ‘Whether or not Hana-chan’s next will tell us whether the killer’s targeting people who are connected to the first case, or people that show up on TV.  And the person who showed up on the Midnight Channel last night might have been him! We need to keep an eye on him!’

‘Uh. Right,’ he replies, and then gestures at the photobooks in Yukiko and Rise’s hands, ‘Then why did you bring those things?’

‘I don’t see the harm in getting an autograph while we’re here,’ Yukiko says, smiling, ‘It’s not every day you get to meet a celebrity.’

‘I just want to figure out why he’s _really_ taking that hiatus,’ Chie adds, tutting, ‘That interview didn’t tell us anything, and he’s been getting really popular lately! It’s a mystery that someone _needs_ to solved.’

‘Riiight. Why am I thinkin’ you guys are doing this for reasons other than the investigation,’ Kanji replies, shaking his head and then looking at Souji with a sigh, ‘Frickin’ girls, right, senpai? Wait, what the hell is that under your arm?’

Souji unrolls the JUNE-5 poster.

‘Ooh, that’s the limited edition, right?’ Chie says, ‘Wait, weren’t there only 150 of those printed?’

Kanji buries his face in his hands.

‘Ordered it for Nanako-chan a while back,’ Souji explains, shrugging. That doesn’t seem to ease Kanji’s misery at all. Rise frowns, and gives him a gentle elbow.

‘C’mon, Kanji, don’t you think he’s cute?’ Rise says.

‘What the hell, are you startin’ with that shit again?’ Kanji snarls, ‘How many times I gotta say it! I ain’t –‘

‘Wouldn’t Keiichi be more Kanji-kun’s type?’ Yukiko interrupts, her tone absent-minded, as though Kanji wasn’t getting rapidly close to putting his fist through a wall, ‘He’s got more mystique than Hana-chan.’

‘Oooh, and he’s got darker hair too, and he wears that hat…’ Chie chimes in.

‘Go to hell!’ Kanji bellows, his face burning.

Souji rolls his eyes, letting them bicker amongst themselves as they enter Junes. He isn’t sure if how much the girls seemed to relish picking on Kanji was exactly helping his issues with women,  or whether this was practically exposure therapy, but that was an issue he would deal with later. What they need to focus on was making sure Yosuke Hanamura didn’t get kidnapped.

Junes is more crowded than Souji has ever seen it, full of teenage girls and middle-aged housewives, looking considerably less focused on their groceries than usual. With little idea where Hanamura would be – if he was really spending his first day in Inaba hanging around Junes – they just begin wandering around each floor in turn.

‘I can’t see him anywhere…’ Rise whines, as they make their way up to the food court. The crowds are still thick, but seem as though they’re thinning out. A lot of the girls look to be giving up and heading home, an aura of dejection hanging around them like a fog.

‘Well, I suppose it doesn’t seem very likely he’d go straight to working in his Dad’s store,’ Chie says, shrugging, ‘But hey, let’s get some steak while we’re here!’

‘Hell yeah, I’m starving!’ Kanji says, perking up considerably at the mention of food.

‘Yeah, I could go for some,’ Souji replies, and digs in his pocket for his wallet, ‘What does everyone want?’

Chie and Kanji shout out their extensive orders, while Yukiko mumbles something about just whatever noodle dish they have that isn’t too calorific. They’re predictable enough that he really doesn’t know why he bothers asking, he thinks with an absent smile.

‘I’ll help you carry everything, senpai,’ Rise says, joining him as he wanders over to the grill. There’s barely anyone on staff, just some skinny kid in the kitchen. Souji knocks on the counter with his knuckles.

‘Um, sheesh, I guess everyone’s dealing with the hub-bub downstairs, huh?’ Rise mutters, and then a little louder, ‘Um, excuse me?’

The boy in the kitchen looks up and then approaches the counter, pulling earphones out of his ears.  He looks as though he’d rather be literally anywhere else.

‘Oh, hey, sorry,’ he says, ‘What can I get you?’

His face looks very familiar…

‘Um, wait,’ Rise says, ‘Yosuke Hanamura? That’s you, right?’

She looks at Souji, alarmed. Hanamura looks completely different from how appears on TV. Skinnier, for one, to the point where it looks a little unhealthy. Souji can see his dark roots growing through, too.

‘Oh,’ Yosuke says, and sighs, ‘I guess you guys came here for that. Dad told me not to talk to anyone today…’

‘Wait, why are you even working here anyway?’ Souji says, puzzled. Yosuke rubs the back of his neck.

‘The whole place is short-staffed, so Dad asked me to pitch in. Apparently a girl who worked here died, and now all the part-timers are leaving. They think the place is bad luck,’ he says, and then looks at Rise wince, his eyes widening, ‘Ah, crap, sorry. She was a high schooler, right? Did you guys know her?’

‘Yeah. We knew her,’ Rise mumbles, looking down at the counter.

‘Urgh, sorry, me and my big mouth,’ he said quickly, sounding as though he felt as bad to say it as Rise was to hear it.

‘That’s kind of what we wanted to talk to you about,’ Souji intercepted, sensing that this conversation could go into upsetting territory very quickly if left unchecked, ‘The killer is still at large, and we think…you might be targeted next.’

‘Targeted next?’ he says, and then laughs awkwardly, ‘Kind of a scary thing to say to a guy you don’t know, man.’

‘Oh! Sorry, I guess we didn’t introduce ourselves,’ Rise says, ‘I’m Rise Kujikawa, and this is Souji Seta.’

Souji nods his head in greeting.

‘Huh, oh, right, you’re the girl that works at Marukyu Tofu, right?’ Yosuke says, tilting his head at Rise.

‘Mhm. So if you’re ever in need of top-quality – oh…uh, I guess you’d just get it from here, right?’ Rise says. Yosuke cringes and looks away.

‘Anyway,’ Souji says, feeling as though the combined social awkwardness between them was going to suffocate him, ‘Have you noticed anything strange since you got back into town, or any strange people?’

‘Strange? Not really,’ he says, shrugging, ‘There’ve been a few fans hanging around that seemed kinda intense, but that’s not really strange. Store security should be able to deal with them easy enough. Oh, I did see that weird TV show last night…my parents said that it looked like me.’

‘It wasn’t?’ Souji asks.

‘Well, I guess it looked like me, but I’ve never been filmed in that outfit,’ he says, ‘He looked taller too. What was with that show anyway? Gave me the creeps.’

‘We’re not sure yet,’ Souji says, ‘But we think that people who appear there, go missing next.’

‘Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. We thought we should tell you to be careful,’ Rise adds, nodding.

‘Ha, well, it’s good to know I didn’t imagine that whole weird thing,’ he says, and then winks at them, ‘Thanks for letting me know. Hey, how about I fix you guys up with something on the house, just to say thank you for worrying about me.’

‘Uh…the order we have is kind of…extensive,’ Rise says, glancing behind her at Chie and Kanji. Yosuke waves a hand.

‘Eh, don’t worry about it. I have more money than I know what to do with lately,’ he says, ‘What can I get you?’

Souji explains their order, half expecting Yosuke to balk at the prospect of paying for it himself, but Yosuke just nods and writes it down, and then disappears into the kitchen to fix it up. He exchanges a look with Rise.

‘He’s different than he seems on TV,’ he comments, wondering what Nanako would make of this more low-key version of Hana-chan.

‘I think most people are pretty different from how they seem on TV,’ Rise says, her tone pensive.

‘So you’re not disappointed?’ Souji teases, grinning at her. Rise nudges him hard in the ribs with her elbow. They both stand still when Yosuke comes back, putting all their food on a pair of trays for them.

‘Seems like the crowds are thinning out,’ a voice interrupts them. Rise and Souji turn to see Adachi and Dojima approaching them.

‘Huh, what the hell are you two doing here?’ Dojima asks, glaring at Souji. Souji wishes his uncle would stop accusing him of murder every twenty minutes.

Although, he has to admit, it probably doesn’t look too great.

‘Just getting some lunch with friends,’ Souji says, nodding his head towards the other three. By the looks of it, Chie and Yukiko are torturing Kanji over something or another.

‘Right, well, don’t crowd Hanamura-san. He’s a celebrity, not a zoo exhibit,’ Dojima says, scowling at them.

‘Hey, they’re fine. They were just warning me to be careful,’ Yosuke interrupts, ‘You know, because of the incidents around here lately.’

‘Were they? Well, I can’t say it’s not a good idea to be careful, but this is police business, okay? You shouldn’t be interfering with a case like this,’ Dojima says, turning his attention to Souji, ‘Your mother put me in charge of you, she wouldn’t appreciate me letting you run around getting involved with something so dangerous…’

Souji and Rise look at each other miserably as Dojima lectures them, promising to make a phonecall to Rise’s grandmother about the matter later. Out of the corner of his eye, Souji sees Yosuke mouth an apology.

\--

**Magician**

Rise knew that people were different from how they seemed on TV.

She knew that better than most, really, however brief and inconsequential her brush with stardom had been.

Yet, all the same, the differences between the bubbly, excitable, kind of ditzy Hana-chan she’d seen on talk-shows and in music videos, and the exhausted Hanamura-san in the Junes apron, they were multiple and vast. Rise wondered what it was like, living a double-life like that. She wondered if she would have been able to stand it.

Her thoughts lurch sickeningly towards middle school, and she swallows.

She wouldn’t have been able to stand it at all.

 

The next day, they stake out Junes while Yosuke is at work, determined to catch the killer in the act.

It…doesn’t go well. But she learns that Kanji, although a big softy on the inside, is still just as capable of scaring the crap out of unsuspecting bystanders.

‘W-well, they were hangin’ around with cameras, looking suspicious!’ he stutters as they leave Junes, followed closely behind by three members of store security.

‘They were _eleven_ , Kanji-kun,’ Souji says severely, in a tone that suggests he’s thinking of calling Mrs Tatsumi to discuss the matter with her later. Yosuke had managed to calm both girls down by agreeing to autograph their photocards and pose for a selfie, but his father had been considerably less understanding of Kanji’s antics.

Souji sighs, rubbing his forehead.

‘I hope that he doesn’t ban us…we need the TV in the electronics department to travel to the TV world safely,’ he says, and then with considerable more anguish, ‘And Nanako-chan would be _devastated_.’

‘Uh…I dunno, Mr Hanamura sounded pretty pissed…’ Kanji says, ‘Sorry senpai.’

‘Well, I guess today was a bust, huh?’ Chie says, sighing, and then brightened up, ‘Well, we’ve warned him, at least. We’ll just have to keep an eye on the Midnight Channel and hope for the best.’

‘Yes, we don’t _know_ that it’s Hanamura-san who’ll be taken,’ Yukiko adds, ‘And if he _is_ taken, we’ll know for sure that the killer’s targeting people he sees on TV. Let’s just wait and see.’

Rise supposes that’s the best they can do for now. Still, she doesn’t exactly feel good about practically leaving him out as bait.

 

‘Senpai, are you in your room?’ Rise asks, sitting cross-legged on her bed with her phone balanced between her eat and the crook of her shoulder. On the other end of the line, she hears Souji shuffling around his room – probably tidying away work from one of his eight million part time jobs. Or one of those dorky model robots he makes.

‘Yes, put Nanako to bed an hour ago,’ he says. Rise frowns – as cute as it is, it sometimes seemed a little…odd that Souji always had to be the one making Nanako’s lunches and making sure she got to bed on time. He may as well be her father instead of Dojima.

Rise looks at the time – four minutes until midnight.

‘I really hope we don’t see him on here tonight,’ she says, to fill the silence.

Souji hums, and the lack of response makes Rise wants to scream. She wishes she could stand being quiet. Souji loves the quiet – he’ll happily sit by himself fishing for hours, or folding envelopes or whatever. Sometimes, it feels as though all of his different friends and jobs and all the things he busies himself with, they’re all things that get in between him and his own alone time. She can feel him, sometimes, aching to be away.

Rise can’t stand the quiet. She’s just never been able to get enough people around her to stave it away.

‘It’s almost time,’ he says quietly.

The TV screen flickers to life. The figure of Yosuke appears on screen, all gleaming white teeth and flawless skin, dressed in a jacket covered in orange sequins, and jeans tight enough they looked like they were going to cut off his blood supply to his legs. Behind him, was a building that looked like the entrance to a studio. He flicked a hand through his perfectly styled hair, winking at the camera, before bringing a microphone up to his face.

‘Gooood evening, everyone! It’s JUNE-5’s beloved Hana-chan here, with his long-awaited foray into a solo career!’ he says, with all the enthusiasm of a game show host who had just taken a line of something unidentifiable in a club bathroom, ‘No more bandmates, no more agents, and no more managers - it’s all me from here on out!’

He turns to the side, posing as though he’s in the middle of a photoshoot.

‘So what does that mean, huh? That means I’m gonna be telling – and _showing -_ everything,’ he says, and then turns back to the camera, touching his finger to his cheek and smiling, ‘Ha, that’s right, a tell-all exposé of everything of JUNE-5’s cutest, youngest, _goofiest_ member, Yosuke Hanamura! Juuuust what everyone wants, right? Ha ha!’

He flashes a peace sign at the camera.

‘So don’t hold back! This time, there’s no script and no prep. You’re getting the real me from here on out, and all the juicy gossip that goes with that!’ he says, and then punches a fist into the air, ‘Everybody fight!’

With a twirl of his jack, Yosuke turns and runs into the studio. The TV splutters out, leaving Rise staring at her own reflection, her phone clutched to her ear.

‘…Well then,’ Souji says, after a moment of silence.

‘Wh-what did he mean he’s _showing_ everything?’ Rise splutters, her heart thumping. No matter how many times she sees a Shadow do this, it doesn’t get any less unnerving.

‘I don’t know, but we should rescue him quickly,’ he replies, as unflappable as ever.

‘Right, right. Poor Yosuke-san won’t be _able_ to come back off hiatus if this goes on,’ she says, rubbing her forehead, ‘Talking badly about his bandmates, about his own lyrics…that kind of PR can really ruin a career.’

‘Huh. You sound as though you know something about this kind of thing,’ Souji says thoughtfully. Rise tenses, her fingers curling tight around her phone.

‘I, um. I have a family member who’s worked in the music industry before,’ she says, swallowing.

It’s not a lie. It’s just not the whole truth.

‘…Okay,’ Souji says, ‘I’m going to bed. Get some rest too, Rise.’

‘Okay. Night-night, senpai.’

**Author's Note:**

> I basically wanted to write something that explored the weird similarities between Rise and Yosuke's characters and it kind of got away from me. AS ALWAYS, REALLY.


End file.
